


The Next Two Horns

by ideserveyou



Category: Arthur of the Britons
Genre: Angst, Drinking & Talking, Fluff, M/M, Outdoor Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-04
Updated: 2012-10-04
Packaged: 2017-11-15 15:20:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/528693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideserveyou/pseuds/ideserveyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a bitter fight over a girl, Arthur and Kai have some serious (and not-so-serious) making-up to do</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Next Two Horns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freddiejoey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freddiejoey/gifts).



> Set right after the end of the canon episode 'Daughter of the King' and written as a birthday gift for Freddiejoey. Once again, huge thanks to trepkos for beta-reading that made this more than the sum of its words.

| Llud looks up at his two sons as they come back into the hall, arms around each other and faces dripping with wine.  
  
  
  
He frowns. ‘You were supposed to drink it, not bathe in it… Ah, well, it seems to have done the trick either way. Now let’s have no more of this nonsense. Making a show of yourselves in front of the whole village. What were you thinking of?’  
  
‘Sorry, Llud.’ Kai looks at the floor, reduced to a small boy being scolded for squabbling with his brother. The habits of youth are hard to break… And he hopes Arthur isn’t going to try to answer Llud’s question.  
  
‘And you, Arthur?’  
  
‘My apologies.’  
  
‘Accepted. Let that be the end of it.’  
  
Arthur nods, his face very serious. ‘You’re quite right, Llud. The village should not witness our… private discussions. And we have work to do. Kai, I need you to accompany me to inspect the western boundary stones. Since we have already wasted so much time this morning, I propose that we set out without delay. And if you and I find that further discussion is required, the village need not be troubled by it.’  
  
With a nod to Llud, he strides out of the main doors; they hear him calling for the horses to be saddled.  
  
‘Well done,’ Llud says quietly, smiling at Kai. ‘Even if it was a waste of good wine… Here, take the rest of the skin with you. You might find a use for it before the day is out. And Kai…’  
  
‘Mmm?’ Kai turns back on the threshold.  
  
‘I’m certain that all is well with the boundary stones. But please, make sure the same is true of your brother, before you come home again.’  
  
‘You have my word,’ Kai tells him, and follows Arthur out into the sunshine.  
  
…  
  
‘Admit it,’ Kai says, as he lounges in the shade of a clump of oaks, barefoot and shirtless in the midday heat. ‘You haven’t the faintest idea where the blasted boundary stones are. And anyway that’s not why we’re here.’  
  
‘Isn’t it?’ Arthur relaxes, propped against the bole of a tree, his bare chest and shoulders sheened with sweat. Kai looks with regret at the bruises and scratches from their tussle.  
  
‘You know it’s not.’ Kai lies back, propped on his elbows, and looks up into the dappled green foliage above him.  
  
‘Was she good?’  
  
Typical of Arthur, to make a first move that is unexpected. Kai takes a deep breath. ‘No.’  
  
‘But she was pretty, and wild…’ Arthur rumples his hair, and makes pretend-claws of his hands. ‘And  _very_  eager.’ He kneels beside Kai, groping at him, pulling a pouting face.  
  
Kai laughs, and pulls Arthur down beside him.  
  
‘But she wasn’t  _you_ ,’ Kai says, suddenly serious again.  
  
Arthur looks into Kai’s eyes, his blue gaze intense and challenging. ‘Has it always been me, then?’  
  
‘Since the day you came off your horse, the day we faked your death. That was the day when I knew it. But until this morning, until we fought and I – I felt you, your body against mine… I had no hope that it could ever be the same for you too. And then you ran away –’  
  
‘And you came after me, and brought me to my senses… Is there any more of that wine?’  
  
‘What, you want to throw it at me again?’  
  
Arthur shakes his head. ‘No… I… I want to pledge you in it.’  
  
Kai reaches for the cup; refills it, and passes it to Arthur.  
  
‘Here’s to you – to us.’ Arthur raises the cup and salutes Kai. ‘And may no woman ever come between us.’  
  
Arthur passes the drink across; his fingers brush Kai’s.  
  
‘I’ll drink to that.’ Kai drains the cup; sets it down. ‘And here’s my hand on it.’  
  
Arthur takes his hand and clasps it.  
  
He doesn’t let go.  
  
‘I marked you,’ he says, his voice sorrowful, and he leans in and presses his lips to Kai’s bruised forehead.  
  
Another move Kai hadn’t been expecting.  
  
‘It’ll mend,’ Kai tells him. ‘Anyway, I gave as good as I got.’ He traces the grazes on Arthur’s ribcage with his fingertips, feeling the warm skin shudder at his touch.  
  
‘Did I… did I do this, too?’  
  
Kai looks down; Arthur’s hand is resting on Kai’s flank, just above his belt, and surely Arthur must be able to see that those are bite marks…  
  
A flush comes to Kai’s face. ‘You’re not the only one who marked me.’ He recalls it all too clearly: the sharp nip of the girl’s white teeth, exhilarating, arousing, fading to a dull ache and a lingering sense of shame.  
  
‘I will be, from now on,’ Arthur tells him. ‘You are mine, and no other man’s… nor woman’s, either.’  
  
He releases Kai’s hand, and starts to unbuckle his belt, with the same methodical care Arthur applies to any task, from peeling an apple to building a wall.  
  
Every touch of Arthur’s fingers makes Kai’s skin tingle; despite the many demands Eithna made on his body last night, Kai’s prick is already as hard and eager as it has ever been, straining at the front of his breeches.  
  
Arthur glances down, and smiles, then lays a hand there, lightly. Kai draws a sharp breath. ‘Yours, and no other’s,’ he says, pressing against Arthur’s palm.  
  
‘Let me see what is mine, then.’ Arthur pushes Kai’s breeches down; Kai’s cock stands tall, the breeze blowing cool across the wetness at its tip.  
  
Arthur leans down, as though to take Kai in his mouth, and Kai realises with a rush of shame that the scent of the girl still lingers. ‘Don’t.’ He puts a hand against Arthur’s cheek, to hold him back, but Arthur takes Kai’s wrist, very deliberately, and lifts his hand away.  
  
‘She was nothing,’ he says. ‘And you are everything. Let me do this, Kai. Let me prove to you that I want you, and that you do not need to be ashamed of what is past, only to look forward to what is to come.’  
  
‘Let me – let me at least get these off.’ Kai struggles out of his breeches, cursing under his breath as they stick to his sweaty skin.  
  
He looks up to see Arthur stripping himself, neatly and efficiently; Kai cannot suppress a sharply indrawn breath as Arthur turns back to him.  
  
‘Oh, I did mark you,’ Arthur says, kneeling down, very close, already half-hard. ‘Here’ – he kisses Kai’s chin – ‘and here’ – he strokes across his chest – ‘and here too’ – he runs a gentle caress over Kai’s lower belly, Arthur’s knuckles just brushing against the base of Kai’s aching cock. ‘And where else, Kai?’  
  
‘Here.’ Kai lays a hand over his heart.  
  
‘You sentimental fool,’ Arthur says, half-laughing, and then they are wrestling in play, rolling over and over…  
  
They come to a standstill with Arthur on top, and there is a moment of stillness.  
  
Arthur starts to move his hand downwards, to where his hardness is once again pressed against Kai’s belly.  
  
Kai takes hold of Arthur’s wrist, and looks into Arthur’s face.  
  
Arthur’s blue eyes are once more wide and wondering, but now they hold no trace of shame.  
  
‘You want me,’ Kai says, and it is a question as much as a statement.  
  
Arthur nods, smiling, and takes hold of Kai just as gently and carefully as he let go of him this morning.  
  
‘I want you,’ he whispers, and presses his lips to Kai’s.  
  
‘Should we not bathe first?’  
  
‘No.’ Arthur kisses Kai again, open-mouthed and languorously. ‘I want you as you are. Sticky, sweaty, dusty, wine-stained… and right now.’  
  
How often Kai has dreamed of hearing such words from Arthur’s lips… but dreams are one thing, reality another. He knows Arthur has had a girl, here and there; does Arthur think that taking another man will be just as easy?  
  
‘Arthur…’ Kai isn’t sure how to say this. ‘What… what exactly is it that you want?’  
  
Arthur doesn’t reply, just rolls off him and gets to his feet.  
  
‘I’m sorry. Arthur, wait…’ Kai tries to get up too, but his knees seem to have turned to water. ‘I meant no offence.’  
  
Arthur bends over and rummages in the saddlebag; then he turns, with a broad smile, clutching something behind his back. ‘Did you think me so innocent?’  
  
He kneels beside Kai, and shows him what he was hiding.  
  
An oil flask.  
  
There is a short silence. A crow flies over, with a harsh cry.  
  
‘Kai?’ Arthur’s face registers concern. ‘What is wrong?’  
  
‘Nothing, I –’ Kai can’t meet those blue eyes. Arthur looks so happy; but Kai is still filled with raw memories of last night. His own drunken infatuation; his determination to take the woman simply because Arthur had forbidden it, denying and rebuking him in public as though he were no more than a servant, or a dog. His seething resentment, the fury of the fight… and all for nothing. If he had only had eyes to see, he and Arthur could have been together like this years ago, and he will always regret it… ‘Nothing.’  
  
Arthur cups Kai’s chin with a gentle hand, and looks into his face. ‘That’s not true.’  
  
Kai braces himself to make the explanation that Arthur will surely demand. Instead, a soft kiss is pressed to his lips and Arthur says: ‘Let me make it so.’  
  
Kai watches as Arthur kneels beside him and opens the oil flask; slicks his own slim length, and then Kai’s larger one. Arthur is inexperienced, uncertain, eager; but his every touch makes Kai ache with need.  
  
Arthur sets the oil down, and leans over Kai. ‘There, see, that’s better already. Now, if I can just…’ He scrambles awkwardly on top again, their pricks sliding together, and despite the prickly fragments of dried grass and leaves and grit that have stuck to the oil, Kai never wants this feeling to stop.  
  
Arthur snakes his oily hand down between their bodies and takes hold of both shafts. ‘Is that… good?’  
  
‘You’re holding me a little tight, perhaps. But good, yes, more than good, Arthur, please don’t stop.’  
  
‘There are… some gaps in my knowledge,’ Arthur admits.  
  
‘Then let me help you fill them.’ Kai adds his own hand to Arthur’s, and shows him how to work their erections, how to tease his thumb across each tender head in turn, how to urge forward and hold back.  
  
And when he kisses Arthur again, and slips a tongue-tip into Arthur’s mouth to caress the inside of his lips, Arthur moans and whines and thrusts hard into their joined hands, then throws back his head and yells Kai’s name, and they are both coming, both shouting, and if they will be honest, both crying too.  
  
Afterwards they lie in a gritty, sticky tangle of limbs, panting for breath.  
  
The golden spring afternoon is all around them, loud with birdsong.  
  
‘Thank you,’ Kai says. ‘Thank you, Arthur… Arthur?’  
  
He looks at Arthur, and sees that he’s asleep, at ease and peaceful, a smile playing at the corners of his beautiful mouth.  
  
Kai gathers him close, and feels his own eyelids falling shut; lulled by Arthur’s even breathing, he succumbs to sleep, his face buried in Arthur’s fragrant hair.  
  
A while later he wakes to the sensation of movement against his side. He rolls over sleepily, and catches his breath.  
  
Arthur has helped himself to more oil and is stroking himself, looking at Kai with naked adoration.  
  
Arthur’s shaft glistens; his grasping fingers make tiny sticky noises as they move rhythmically.  
  
Kai is instantly hard.  
  
He reaches over to help. Arthur feels hot and firm and still slightly gritty; he smells deliciously of sweat, and sex.  
  
A smile lights Arthur’s face as he feels Kai’s hand on him. Then he lifts the hand gently away, and strokes Kai’s belly. ‘Kai, I’d like to – if it’s not too soon…’  
  
‘Too late, if anything.’  
  
‘Don’t say that. I think it’s just in time. In time to save us from tearing each other apart over that deceitful little –’  
  
Kai shivers.  
  
‘Come here,’ Arthur says, and draws him closer, entwining their bodies, touching and kissing everywhere.  
  
Soon Kai no longer cares whether it’s too soon or too late or what the flying fuck it is.  
  
Kai rolls onto his front and spreads himself, and then Arthur coats his hand and gingerly feels his way into Kai’s cleft, brushing his fingertips lightly over Kai’s entrance. For a while he seems reluctant to go further, but just when Kai is about to tell him kindly that it doesn’t matter, that he doesn’t have to do this, a beetle scuttles out of the leaf-litter and runs right across Kai’s arse, tickling and making him squirm.  
  
Arthur laughs. ‘I can’t let a beetle show me up by getting there first!’  
  
Soon Arthur has two fingers inside Kai, easing him open, making him whimper and plead.  
  
‘I want to see your face.’ Arthur kisses Kai lusciously on one buttock. ‘This is very nice, but… I want to watch you. Can you…’  
  
He withdraws his hand, and Kai turns onto his back, bending one knee to open himself up. ‘There. Try that.’  
  
Arthur kneels behind him, and tries, but somehow he can’t get the angle right; the head of his prick pushes deliciously against Kai’s ring, but goes no further.  
  
‘I’m sorry.’ Arthur sounds frustrated with himself. ‘Perhaps it was too soon. I know so little of this.’  
  
‘Let go a minute… This should be easier for you.’ Kai turns over and lifts himself on all fours. He glances over his shoulder, and grins. ‘I can see you’re enjoying the view…’  
  
Arthur adds more oil, pressing more confidently into Kai’s entrance now. Somehow he has managed to rid himself of grit: he feels silk-smooth as he works his way inside.  
  
Kai moans, and thrusts with his hips to take Arthur deeper.  
  
‘So tight…’ Arthur murmurs. ‘Does that hurt?’  
  
‘Not at all.’ And it doesn’t. It’s tight, yes; and it’s strange, like an ache, and yet unlike. A feeling of being filled; owned; utterly satisfied.  
  
Then Arthur moves, only slightly, but he touches something deep inside Kai, somewhere Kai has never been touched before, making him cry out.  
  
Arthur tries to withdraw, but Kai looks round and shakes his head urgently, reassuring Arthur that the cry was not one of pain; and when Kai has recovered a little, Arthur makes the same movement again… and again… his face alight with joy at being able to give Kai such a gift.  
  
Kai wishes this feeling could last for ever; but even Arthur is only human, and it’s not long before he loses all control and comes, shuddering all over, and only slightly quieter than last time.  
  
Kai holds back, concentrating on making this good for Arthur; taking someone for the first time is never easy.  
  
Afterwards Arthur is very quiet, half-dozing, with his head on Kai’s shoulder and Kai’s arms around him.  
  
Kai wonders what he is thinking.  
  
As the sun moves lower in the sky, they rouse themselves, check the horses’ tethers and move them to a fresh patch of shady grass, then go to the river to bathe.  
  
They lie on the bank afterwards drying off; Arthur seems to feel that he has to seek out every mark and bruise that he made on Kai’s body and apologise for it, all over again.  
  
One thing leads to another, and another, until Kai is shouting Arthur’s name to the heavens, and coming down Arthur’s throat…  
  
...  
  
The sun is sinking as they ride back to the village, eased and content.  
  
They amble into the longhouse with their arms once more around each other’s shoulders; Llud grins, and enquires politely after the boundary stones.  
  
Arthur stares into the fire, straight-faced. ‘Oh yes, the boundaries are secure and well established now. There need be no doubt as to what we have and hold.’  
  
‘But it was worth making sure.’ Llud’s mouth quirks.  
  
‘It was,’ Kai agrees.  
  
‘Did you drink the wine?’  
  
‘Down to the last drop.’ Arthur’s voice is level and serious, but Kai dare not look at him.  
  
Llud drains his mead-cup. ‘It was a good vintage, that one.’  
  
‘It could not be bettered.’ Arthur leans close to Kai, under pretext of adding more wood to the fire, and whispers: ‘And perhaps later we’ll find there’s a little more left in the barrel…’  
---


End file.
